


Curse of a Feather

by Wasthatapun



Category: The Aquabats! Super Show!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 02:37:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasthatapun/pseuds/Wasthatapun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eaglebones tenth birthday means the activation of his families curse and all his big bro wants to do is make the transition as easy on his little brother as possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curse of a Feather

The Falconhawk household was a flurry of activity, decorating and baking and present wrapping, all in preparation for one very important event.

Tomorrow Eaglebones was turning ten years old.

Unlike previous years he wasn’t allowed to invite all his friends, there wasn’t going to be a group party, It was just going to be the family.

And with very good reason.

Eaglebones sat on the stairs, torn between awe at all this effort just for his special day and sadness that none of his friends could come.

“So,” Eagleclaw plopped down on the step above him and was met with the younger boy whipping around to look up at his big brother with wide eyes “Big day tomorrow, excited?” he put a clawed hand on Bones head and ruffed his already fluffy hair.

“Yeah, course!” Bones chirped as he batted Claw’s hand away, but his expression didn’t at all match his tone.

“Liar.”

“Am not!” Bones stood in a huff but was caught in Claw’s arms instead, pulled into a tight hug against his plumage.

“You are so, you little liar! Admit it.”

Bones gave a halfhearted struggle and a whined ‘nnnooooooo!’ but gave up within seconds, flopping in his big brothers arms and clinging to him with another huff.

“Maybe a little.”

Eagleclaw didn’t blame him.

“Hey, you’re gonna be fine. you’ll go to bed and maybe it’ll hurt a little bit but it’s not so bad. Everything will be over by the time you wake up.” the words were cooed softly as he rocked in what he hoped was a comforting way, patting him carefully on the back, always weary of his sharp claws.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Kay … Claw? You think I’m gonna get cool stuff like you? Feathers an claws an stuff?”

Claw sputtered at the question, leave it to his little bro to think his stupid useless claws were cool.

“I - naw, I bet you’ll get somethin even cooler.” or at least that’s what he hoped, Claw really didn’t want his baby bro to go through the same aggravation he did.

“But I wanna be cool like you.”

“You’re gonna be plenty cool, cause you’re my?”

Bones giggled as Claw waited expectantly and chirped back “B R O!”

“Right! Look, how about tonight I sleep in your room, that way if it _**does**_ hurt you won’t be alone. sound good?”

He perked up the rest of the way, bouncing excitedly. 

“Yeah! That’d be the coolest!”

“Good, now stop your whining and lets go eat dinner, mom made your favorite!”

Eaglebones hopped up and both raced off, Eagleclaw dreading what the evening would bring.

——

Eagleclaw was right.

It did hurt.

But it was also over pretty quickly, with Bones being woken in the night with pain searing through his whole body, the agonizing ache coming from deep inside him. He curled in on himself and huddled into his big bro who comforted and cooed as he whimpered pitifully. Their families curse doing it’s work just as it had on every member of their family when they hit ten years old.

When morning came and Bones still looked totally normal Claw crushed down the welling jealousy. After all he’d spent the whole day before hoping the curses effect wouldn’t be as bad on his little brother as it had been on him. So he smiled and forced himself to feel relieved that the curse had _**apparently** _ decided to leave his little bro alone.

But appearances are deceiving and that delusion only lasted a few days.

He really should have noticed after Eaglebones’ birthday something was off with how much **_lighter_** he suddenly felt. But Eagleclaw had simply written it off because, after all, the kid had always been a skinny thing.

And he’d always been a bit of a klutz,  so the sudden loss of balance didn’t really register as out of the ordinary.

In fact it was sort of funny seeing him try to walk in a straight line with a strong wind coming from the side and failing spectacularly.

But he was the big Bro, he should have realized something was off, should have watched him closer and been more careful and he most definitely should not have **_encouraged_** his little bro when he decided he was going to go try jumping the skateboard he’d _**just gotten**_ that he could only _**barely** _ ride.

“Eagleclaw watch this!”

He was so happy and excited balancing precariously on that thing all set to launch himself at their makeshift ramp and Eagleclaw smiled and waved him on. It was only a tiny ramp and he didn’t have much room to build up speed, the worst he’d do was skin his knee.

Turns out that was not the worst he could do.

He hit the ramp and the board slid right out from under him and he landed well, actually Claw was impressed with how well he hit and rolled and expected him to bounce right back up. Instead he stayed on his side absolutely howling and clutching his knee as he tried to choke back sobs.

“BONES!”

——

He’d broken his knee.

He’d barely done more then _**trip** _ and he’d broken his knee.

X-rays were taken and tests done and they found that while not exactly _**brittle** _ his bones had become hollow, just like an eagle’s. 

The old family curse had indeed done its job.

The doctors reassured them that he seemed to be healing surprisingly fast, Probably another side effect of the curses work. Which was a good thing, but the news did nothing to quell the guilt Claw felt at letting it happen in the first place.

He was out of the hospital in only a few days, told to leave the brace on for at least a week after and even that was probably longer then needed.

But the curse had left him more fragile than anyone else so of **_course_** they were going to be overly careful and protective.

He was smothered with attention when he got home. But the person he sought out, hobbling on his little crutches he still wasn’t quite used to, was his big brother.

“I don’t even get to fly like you can, this sucks.”

Bones huffed as he plopped down on his brother’s bed, and despite himself Claw laughed.

“Yeah. But hey, at least no ones gonna make fun of how you look!”

Bones looked at him oddly before he realized what he meant. “But you look _**cool**_.”

That turned the chuckle to more of a derisive snort. Kid had no idea. But that was another matter and he pushed it aside.

Right now he had a much needed late birthday present to give his baby brother.

“Hey I got you something. I want you to start wearing them when you do stuff okay?”

He slid the box across the bed and Bones snatched it up excitedly, tearing it open.

His expression quickly turned from excited to confused.

“What are these things?”

“Knee pads. It’ll keep that -” he made a vague gesture at his little brother’s bandaged up leg “from happening again, or at least it’ll make it less likely.”

Bones huffed “I’m not a _**doll**_.”

“And you’re not _**stupid** _ either.  You know I have to change how I do stuff because of my claws. So you have to change stuff because of your bones. This is one of those things.”

He considered, wrinkling his nose as he looked down at the knee pads resting in his lap. Finally, with a bit of struggle, he put one on leaving the other for after his leg was healed and out of its brace and hobbled over to Claw to throw his arms around him.

“Thanks Eagleclaw. You always take care of me good. we’ll always take care of each other right?”

Claw hugged him back, hugging him tight.

“Course I will, cause i’m your what?”

“You’re my B R O!”


End file.
